Nurturing Talents APFG Newsletter 2018 Issue 5 No. 1 Special Issue on Creativity, Leadership and Talent Development for Gifted Students in Asia-Pacific Published by Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness Editors: Mantak Yuen, Suzannie Leung & Faisal Yahya Alamiri CONTENTS APFG President's Address p.1 Kyungbin Park Developing Creativity in Children p.2-4 Usanee Anuruthwong Turkey: EPTS Center Finds its New Gifted and Talented Students p.5 Ugur Sak The Top-notch Program in Mainland China p.6-8 Shao Wang, Chengke Liu, Yan Kong The 15th Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness, 20-24 August 2018, Thailand p.9-10 Supaporn Sornampon APCG2018 Youth Camp “A memorable experience in Thailand” p.11-16 Supaporn Sornampon 2019 IRATDE Biennial Conference, 12–16 April, Taipei p.17-21 Ching-Chih Kuo Expanding Gifted Education for the Economically Disadvantaged Students in Korea p.22-23 Jiyoung Ryu Recent Research on Gifted Education in Singapore p.24-26 Liang See Tan Implementation of Acceleration in Schools in New Zealand p.27 Janna Wardman Gifted Awareness Week in Australia p.28 Jae Yup Jared Jung, Melinda Gindy Development of Education and Parent’s Advisory Program for Gifted Student in Indonesia p.29-31 Fitriani Yustikasari Lubis Seminar and Workshop Series on Differentiation: Professional Development Program on p.32-34 Gifted Education for Educators in Hong Kong Lai Kwan Chan Role-models for Gifted students – the Hong Kong Gifted Apprentices Program and the Senior Student Club p.35-37 Tai Kai Ng The 7th Annual Award of the Star Bright Scholarships for Talented Children in Hong Kong p.38 Jason CH Yeung The University of Jeddah Model for Talent Development: A New Direction for Attracting and p.39-46 Nurturing Gifted Youth in Saudi Arabia’s Higher Education Faisal Yahya Alamiri Progressive Development of Gifted and Talented Education in Malaysia p.47-48 Abu Yazid Abu Bakar Nurturing Creativity in Children with Language Talent: Workshops at HKU CAISE p.49-50 Serene Chan, Jo Ng, Virginia Cheung, Mantak Yuen APFG Executive Committee Members 2016-2018 p.51 Acknowledgements p.51 APFG Delegates 2016-2018 p.52 Meetings and Conferences in Brief p.53 Contacting the APFG p.53 Membership p.53 APFG President’s Address Kyungbin Park, PhD Chair of Department Professor, Dept. of Early Childhood Education Gachon University, South Korea President, Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness Email: [email protected] Dear Members, Colleagues and Friends, Greetings and warm regards to you and your beloved family and friends. Despite the long and harsh winter, spring is inevitably around the corner; and after spring will come the summer. We are looking forward to the next APFG Conference to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, August 20~24, 2018. The conference theme is “Inspiration, Motivation, and Creativity: Leading the Way to Giftedness”, an appropriate topic for this time and age. While visiting Thailand for a pre-conference meeting I was very impressed by the richness and diversity of the culture in Thailand, and by the excellent organization and preparation being done by the local organizing committee. This is led by Chairman Chadamas Thuvasethakul PhD. The conference program, organization, accommodation, and site details seem very promising … so start your preparations now! Send in your proposals, register early, and join with friends for a group trip. I am eager to meet you all and I look forward to seeing many new faces. Your attendance will help make APFG stronger and better able to fulfill the aims and purposes of APFG, namely to meet the needs of our gifted populations from all around the world. I really hope that your membership and support for Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness will be a long lasting one. We do have many longtime friends and members, but I also want to warmly welcome new members. Please remember that we, the Executive Committee members, are always open to receive members’ ideas and opinions. I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to… * remember to renew your membership when the expiration date approaches * invite colleagues and friends to become members * stay in contact with your country’s delegate and let them know what is happening in your area and fields * send your information and reports about activities, programs, and events in your country to our headquarters for publication in our newsletter * and last but not least, come and contribute your valuable insights at our next APFG Conference in Bangkok in August. With my very best wishes to you Kyungbin Park President, Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness APFG Newsletter 2018 Issue 5 No. 1 1 Developing Creativity in Children Usanee Anuruthwong Secretary-General Association for Developing Human Potential and Giftedness, Thailand Email: [email protected] Creativity is an attribute of wide scope, important at both individual and social levels (Sternberg & Lubart, 2004). Creativity enters into all human innovations, and it can be a component of local wisdom. It is also an important aspect within many higher-order thinking skills (Figure 1). We need to foster creativity in all sectors of human activity in order to ensure a better world. Although creativity is a common word used in all cultures it is actually difficult to devise a clear operational definition, or to know how best to measure or develop it. The difficulty in developing creativity raises important questions for teaching and training. How can we train young people to be more creative? Studies on the development of creativity and creative attributes suggest that training is indeed possible (Lubart & Guignard, 2004); but can we train or teach people to be creative in the same way that we train people to read or to count? Surely the process of training for creativity must be different from what we do with the other types of learning and other forms of ability? In order to develop creativity and creative thinking, we need to know the essence of it. The investigation of creativity should provide strategies that match with the characteristics of creative persons. The characteristics of people who are very creative are different from those of people who cannot ‘think outside the box’ or can only engage in routine work. Studying the differences between the characteristics of creative and non-creative persons can help us identify the significant components of creative behavior (Anuruthwong, 2013). What make people differ in creativity? APFG Newsletter 2018 Issue 5 No. 1 2 Amabile (1996) stated that there are three components involved in creative behavior: (1) domain-relevant skills, (2) creative-relevant processes, and (3) task motivation. Sternberg and Lubart (1995) suggest that personal resources required for creativity are intelligence, knowledge, cognitive style, personality, motivation, and a supportive environment. Much earlier, Guilford (1950) had divided creativity into four attributes: (1) sensitivity to a problem, (2) fluency, (3) flexibility, and (4) originality. His views on divergent thinking and creativity became the flame that kindled later attempts at measuring, teaching and training creativity. Developing strategies for encouraging creativity will enhance and empower children in their lifelong learning processes. It will also provide educators with practical information for improving teacher training. Persons who conduct training should themselves possess flexibility, originality, and an open-mind. Anuruthwong (2002) found that developing creativity was also associated with psycho-emotional traits such as self-confidence. An example of intervention for creativity Anuruthwong conducted summer camps for young children and adolescents which include subject domains (e.g., mathematics, language, science, art) and activities that ignite creative thinking. Group work was used in most of the activities, to encourage communication with others and to express ideas fluently and ‘think outside the box’. Various teaching strategies were used to encourage children’s thinking inside and outside classrooms. The participants were assessed on their personality and creative thinking skills. The results from the pre-and post-assessments revealed that integrating other important factors, such as social interactions and discussions, into the training of creativity were effective. The scores increased from pre- to post-test on creative thinking for all groups. Significant changes in many participants were found in the descriptive reports derived from observation of their performance in three areas: (1) using their knowledge to solve problems or create new products, (2) psycho-social characteristics, and (3) creative thinking. In addition, there were many positive reports from staff members and parents about the students’ happiness and social skill development. Further studies were also suggested in the full report (Anuruthwong, 2011; Anuruthwong, 2012; Anuruthwong, 2013). Figure 1: Four Components of Giftedness (Anuruthwong, 2002) APFG Newsletter 2018 Issue 5 No. 1 3 References Amabile, T.M. (1996). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag. Anuruthwong, U. (2002). Raising a genius: Nurturing the gifted. Bangkok, Thailand: B+ Publishing Co. Anuruthwong, U. (2011). Raising a genius: Building your child with higher level of thinking skills. Bangkok, Thailand: B+ Publishing Co. Anuruthwong, U. (2012). Report on identification of young gifted and talented children at the Center of the Gifted and Talented, Srinakharinwirot University. Bangkok, Thailand: Srinakharinwirot University Press. Anuruthwong, U. (2013).